how many Crappie does structure hold?

I have a single slip boat house that I have put down 6 Honey Hole Trees as seen in picture below. Each one provides a ton of cover 5' high and 6-8' diameter. I have some of them overlapped a little, but also some little holes inside.

I'm wondering how many fish I'm holding down there. I have only had them down a month now and the Crappie spawn hasn't started, but I seem to catch 4-7 keepers every trip and that's it. I catch 90% of those first or last 45 minutes of daylight. I can come back consecutive days and still catch about that many, but haven't had any 7+ days.

Do you think likely there are more down there, but that's as many as I can catch in the 45 minutes they are biting or is my structure only holding about 4-7 and it takes 24 hours for others to move in. Are they territorial?

FYI, these are in 13' of water. So top of structure is about 8' down.

Thank you.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/images/fishing/DSC00776i.gif

I am going to say those thing could possbly hold as many as you want to clean, I have spot I fish with 1 or 2 old trees sticking up and can count on them for 2 to 5 fish each time I hit them. Let us know how they work for you!!!

I would think 6 of those rigs could hold a pile of fish.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by soswine

I would think 6 of those rigs could hold a pile of fish.

---

I would hope so, but they are compacted into a 1 slip area. directions recommended overlapping multiple ones. I was trying to keep all the structure inside the slip to keep boats from ganging up on my perimeter, but maybe I need to spread out the structure.

I guess in a few weeks when they are hot I'll know for sure how many I can pull out of 1 slip in a day.

They aren’t biting that great yet, I’m doing better than anyone else. Maybe 1 in 10 bank fisherman will get a single keeper over the same time and neighboring boat houses over older natural structure average about 2-3 keepers in same time.

On my stick condos the most was 63..... lots of dinks... but they hold em very good....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrappieTexan

On my stick condos the most was 63..... lots of dinks... but they hold em very good....

---

great news, they must not be biting hot yet. thanks.

Depends on the lake and area. Could also be if you fish it too often they are keeping thinned out as fast as they arrive. I have over 200 condos (trees , stakebeds, bamboo , pvc) out on a lake I fish. Seldom catch a limit on one spot , usually 1 to 5 (good fish) is a good spot. Always catch lots of small fish, but when we find small fish first it tells us the big ones are'nt there. If we find a condo that produces big fish, if we over fish it the size and numbers falls. Example we caught 15 first day, then 8 , then 3 , then days after that an occasional fish. You can deplete a spot if you fish it to often. Atleast it works that way here.

Back a few years ago I found a tree (leaved out maple) one afternoon that was just sticking above the surface in 12 fow. Caught about 10 keepers before moving down to another tree ~100 yards away. Well the next morning I was on it early but never got a bite. Came back in the afternoon and picked it apart with 2 of us catching 27 keepers and about that many dinks. Trolled down to the other tree and picked up a couple then returned to the maple only to catch 14 more good ones. Next morning was ssame as the first with the exception of one dink. That afternoon we caught 23 keepers with a few more dinks.

What i surmised is that they pulled into that tree in the afternoon for shade. lots of the fish were caught right in the middle.

In short, should hold a bunch when they want to be there:D

I have 3 bamboo condo's close together and last fall on one trip I caught over 40 with just over 20 keepers. They have held some this spring, but not like they did in the fall.

Those look awesome. Are they working out good for you? What did you use to make them?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rob Lay

I have a single slip boat house that I have put down 6 Honey Hole Trees as seen in picture below. Each one provides a ton of cover 5' high and 6-8' diameter. I have some of them overlapped a little, but also some little holes inside.

I'm wondering how many fish I'm holding down there. I have only had them down a month now and the Crappie spawn hasn't started, but I seem to catch 4-7 keepers every trip and that's it. I catch 90% of those first or last 45 minutes of daylight. I can come back consecutive days and still catch about that many, but haven't had any 7+ days.

Do you think likely there are more down there, but that's as many as I can catch in the 45 minutes they are biting or is my structure only holding about 4-7 and it takes 24 hours for others to move in. Are they territorial?

FYI, these are in 13' of water. So top of structure is about 8' down.

Thank you.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/images/fishing/DSC00776i.gif

---

IMO the amount of Crappie a certain structure is going to hold is totally dependant on the lake and the surroundings you put the cover in. If you have the only cover in a very big flat then that cover could hold unbelievable numbers of fsih. But if you have lots of surrounding cover then yours just becomes another choice for the fish.

Are your "trees" located on a spawning route?? Or in a shallow area just off of deep cover?? Or is your area deeper or shallower than the surronding water?? Are you on the winward side of the lake?? Or not?? Way too many variables that decide where the fish are located.

IF your locator is in a bad part of the lake it won't hold any Crappie. If your locator is on the main spawning route then it could hold 500 fish?? So tell us about your location where you put the locator, not the locator itself. Tom.

Agreed; just like with real estate, it`s LOCATION, then depth, then pattern. As others stated everything else being equal, a windward shore is best. Placing them in lines shallow to deeper allows the fish to use them more of the year and groups of 8- 12 SEEMS to be the most useful overall; during the spring spawn they CAN "influence an area 5X their actual volume. And yes, with modern tackle they CAN get fished down SEVERELY; not gonna say don`t take an occasional limit, just don`t over do it...although when the bite`s hot, kinda like eating Lay`s potato chips...have 18 in a roughly 50` X 40` area in front of the Handicap fishing platform at the CJ Brown Reservoir that this spring produced over 300 keeper crappies over a 24 hr period, plus 3 rather largish "green carp, bluegills galore and who knows how many cats. A guy on a boat whom ventured too close before the 8 or 9 persons fishing there "asked" him to high tail it said his sonar showed a CLOUD of fish that simply looked like a blob...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by midnight_f150

Those look awesome. Are they working out good for you? What did you use to make them?

---

they are called the Honey Hole and not cheap, but I am 100% satisfied. I had 6 and lost one in the Fall to a Nutria chewing the rope. Might add a few more this year, but even with 6 there were still just a couple spots I caught the most.

Fish Cover

I had a great year here on the Crappie. Upside is I fished about 40 times through the year and never had a single time I didn't catch at least 1 keeper. Didn't matter what time of year or the weather there are always at least a few fish. Downside is my best days seemed to top out about 10-15 keepers. I would catch those quickly in 2-3 hours, but then it would shut off. I spent a few all days there and there might be 2-3 hot bites during the day, but each hot bite of the day produced 50-60% less. The average day was 2-3 hours and 4-7 keepers.

Once saw a picture taken by a diver in a gravel pit that was recently closed, the article said there was only a small corner with a weedbed that was just becoming established, no other cover the diver saw. At some time during the clean up before closing a very large tire from a front end loader? was sunk at approx. 20 fow...that damaged tire was PACKED inside with 40- 50 BIG crappies...wish still had the picture! Was about the ONLY cover in the pit, and they obviously flocked to it...

Those are impressive looking condos
:)